


Feel you through the fire

by saynomore



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Bottom Liam, Firefighter Liam, Just Sex, M/M, Porn, and shmoop, really - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-23
Updated: 2014-06-23
Packaged: 2018-02-05 22:36:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1834705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saynomore/pseuds/saynomore
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While the water’s boiling or the microwave’s running, they’ll share a beer and Liam will tell him about his shift. The stories range from tragic to heartwarming to downright hilarious, and it fills Zayn up to the brim to hear Liam talk about his job, because he can see it in every inch of the boy’s body, every line in his skin. Liam loves what he does. Zayn loves him.</p><p>Or Liam is a firefighter with a hectic schedule, and they use the time they have together very, very well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Feel you through the fire

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> For the people at the lovely Ziam Fic Exchange. This is just awful, domestic, cheesy shmoop and I hope that it comes close to what Alana wanted. I had a lot of fun writing it, and hope you guys enjoy this nonsense :) 
> 
> For Alana  
> (I'm sorry, I don't know your a03 username. Comment or email me, I'll add it as a gift :)

It has been a long day. 

It has been a long day in a long week, and Zayn is avidly trying to distract himself by tidying up the house, because he doesn’t want Liam to come home to the garbage dump that Zayn has made of it. Liam usually has a lot of time on his hands when he’s not on shift, which means most of the cleaning is left for him. It’s unfair, and he really tries to do what he can, but he doesn’t have the ability to do chores like Liam. Zayn gets bored; he has better things to do with his time, and the house becomes a bit of a crime scene when Liam’s on shift.

Which is why he finds himself vacuuming right after he gets home from work. Liam won’t be there until the next morning, but Zayn wants to carry some of the weight for once and actually be an adult. He’s got some work to finish up later, and chores take all of his mental willpower, so he has to do them while he still has the energy. 

(Most of the time, he gets out of doing chores when Liam is there, too, because he’ll just pout and huff and bang the dishes that he should be washing until Liam comes in and laughs at him and says something like, “sit down, babe, who are you kidding,” and takes the dishes from him, shaking his head while Zayn goes off to read or buy groceries. He wasn’t made to clean, and he knows it’s petty, and he’s screwed if they ever consider the possibility of having kids- but somehow, for now, it works.)

Zayn’s on his fourth vacuum break in four minutes when he hears rustling outside the door. There’s no way it’s him, no way in hell, but his heart still flutters and he gets anticipation butterflies, because there’s just a slight possibility, just a tiny part of him that dares to hope that it’s-

“Babe.” Zayn runs up and pushes Liam into the green door of their apartment as soon as he walks in, completely awestruck. Liam winces a bit but it doesn’t matter, nothing matters, because he’s home.

“You told me you weren’t going to be home until Sunday.” Zayn gushes, peppering kisses on Liam’s lips. He can’t believe his eyes.

“I know. Doesn’t it make it better that I’m back early?” Liam’s eyes are twinkling, the same way they did last year when Zayn came home to pick up Liam’s gear and found all of Bradford in their small east side flat. His mum and dad, sisters, Dan and Ant, and Harry all stood in front of a full spread of samosas, pakoras, curries, naan, and chicken tikka masala. Liam couldn’t get much past Zayn, but he always managed to find little ways to surprise him. It could be anywhere from bringing him home something from the guys at the department to skipping a shift to sleep in with Zayn, or maybe to not sleep at all, instead staying up all night with their hands all over each other. Liam is getting good at it, and sometimes it worries Zayn how well Liam can get past him after all these years. 

“Fucker.” Zayn murmurs into Liam’s mouth. “I’m a mess, I need to take a shower, I’m in sweatpants, babe. If I knew you were coming-”

“I just got off my shift. I smell like soot and ash and hell. Taking a shower would be pointless. And about your sweatpants-”

Liam flips their positions easily and Zayn’s back hits the door, which sort of hurts, but it doesn’t matter when Liam’s trailing his hand around the outline of Zayn’s dick through the rough grey fabric.

“If you were wearing your skinny jeans, babe, I couldn’t do this.” He quickly finds the head and thumbs over it, drawing a gasp from Zayn. It’s electric, when they’re together, in a way neither of them can explain. With Zayn’s past girlfriends and boyfriends, actual intercourse was nowhere near the amount he feels when Liam so much as looks at him. They ignite in each other’s arms, and know each other’s bodies better than they know their own. He comes back to the moment when Liam captures his lips again, sweetly kissing him while working Zayn over. 

“God, I’ve been waiting for this all day,” Liam pants. Zayn catches Liam’s bottom lip in his mouth and he hisses, pushing slightly on Zayn’s chest. His laugh quakes through his body and makes Zayn vibrate, and they take a moment just looking at each other. He’s still got the telltale smudges of charcoal on his jaw that the dim lighting in the fire station bathrooms couldn’t reveal. Zayn holds Liam’s large wrist in his hand and brings it up to his mouth, sweetly licking the pad of Liam’s thumb to wipe away the charcoal stain. Liam beams at the touch, radiating as he always does under such gentle, subtle attention.

“What would I do without you.”

“Dunno. You’d be awfully lonely. Your dick would be awfully lonely.” Zayn teases, cupping the back of Liam’s neck and initiating the kiss. He shifts his thigh between Liam’s legs and pushes his leg harshly into him, causing a friction that makes them both gasp. The hand previously stroking Zayn runs up and down his back as they started to grind against each other, and the pressure on his dick combined with the solid length of Liam pressing against his hip has him absolutely breathless. Liam’s no longer pushing him against the door and their embrace is almost like dancing, the way Zayn’s got his arms laced over Liam’s shoulders. They could be content like this forever.

“I missed you. So much, babe.” He wants him, so badly that it drives him crazy sometimes. It’s all he can think about when Liam’s on shift, when Zayn’s hand on his own dick in his too large bed isn’t enough to have him crying out. Zayn wants to show Liam just how much he missed him, how much he misses him every day that he’s away. He guides Liam over to their large grey couch and sits him down. They’ve fucked nearly everywhere in the apartment but Zayn thinks that right here, in between the soft grey cushions and the narrow space that forces them together, is his favorite place of them all when Liam blinks fondly up at him. Zayn wants to show him how much this means to him, this stupid surprise that has him suddenly blinking away tears in his eyes for no good reason at all. He wants to show Liam how stupidly in love Zayn is, how much he wants to be with him and to make him feel as good as Zayn does when he smiles.

Kissing down the column of his throat, he rucks up Liam’s grey commissioned undershirt that reeks of sweat and smoke and detergent and everything, really, that makes him up. The smell doesn’t throw him in the slightest, because it sticks to Liam even long after he’s climbed out of the shower. Zayn can smell it when he buries his head in Liam’s hair at night, wrapping him up and holding on until he has to leave again. 

“Babe, not that I don’t, oh- want you to do this, but the showers were full when I got back to the station, so.” Liam pants, and he’s trying so hard, bless him. It doesn’t deter Zayn the slightest, and he starts pulling the hemline of the grey, yellow-striped slacks. 

“Don’t care.”

“Zayn. Really. We don’t need to do it all in one night.” Liam reprimands gently. Zayn looks up at him from where he’s perched and sits back on his haunches. Liam sits up with a familiar look on his face. “I love you. I’m glad I’m here, and you’re here…” Liam kisses his shoulder, his neck, his cheek.

“‘M glad you’re here, too.” Zayn reciprocates. “I‘m always glad, when you come back.” They both stop. Liam pulls away, calculating Zayn’s expression with his brow pulled and his lip between his teeth. It’s terrifying, how much they know about each other from one look. 

“I’ll always come back. Hey.” Liam bumps their foreheads together and lets his lips hover right against Zayn’s, not quite touching.

“I know. I just have an imagination. ‘S my problem.” Zayn admits. He uses the moment to breathe him in, to ground himself in the present. 

“I’m safe. I have my suit, and my boys,” Liam whispers, glancing up at Zayn through his eyelashes, ”and my man,” he punctuates the last word by tapping his fingers lightly over Zayn’s chest and smiling into his mouth. “I’m fine. I’ve got people looking out for me.”

Zayn bridges the gap and kisses him. They sit just like that, Liam with his feet tucked under him and Zayn on his knees, slightly higher up. This time, the kiss stays sweet, up until Liam’s stomach grumbles low and they pull away from each other laughing. 

“That’s why you didn’t want a blowjob.”

“Shut up.” Liam shoves him gently, pulling Zayn off the couch after he gets to his feet.

“We don’t have much. I worked late yesterday and got take out, there may be some left in the fridge.” 

“Thai?” Liam asks, hope fresh in his voice.

“Of course.” Zayn wraps his arms around Liam’s front and kisses the back of his neck as they stumble their way to the kitchen. It’s a bit of a ritual. It doesn’t matter what time of day it is; every time Liam gets off his shift, he’s dead hungry. Zayn doesn’t cook for him, but he’ll always make sure there’s something in the fridge or pantry for him to heat up. While the water’s boiling or the microwave’s running, they’ll share a beer and Liam will tell him about his shift. The stories range from tragic to heartwarming to downright hilarious, and it fills Zayn up to the brim to hear Liam talk about his job, because he can see it in every inch of the boy’s body, every line in his skin. Liam loves what he does. Zayn loves him.

Once Liam’s food is ready he eats it over the counter, too stubborn to sit down at the table like Zayn tells him. When his mouth is full it’s Zayn’s turn to talk, and he’ll go on about the latest news at the office, about which interns are crying and which ones are sleeping with the married company men, about who got fired and who got a raise and how he’s becoming sick of the routine. Liam will sit and eat his macaroni or noodles or pizza, always silently reassuring Zayn when he doubts himself, always offering another perspective when he gets too lost in his own head. 

Sometimes they're more toxic, they'll corner each other in between meal prep and dishwashing and pissing and brushing their teeth to get lost in the moment, in each other, with gentle kisses that promise more when they both have more energy and time. They'll fall into each other, usually after Liam or Zayn takes a shower, and kiss each other's skin back to room temperature. Zayn holds him more often then not, deep until the morning, when they both have to face the day and say their goodbyes once again.

\--

Liam texts him somewhere between two and four, and Zayn doesn’t get the text until he’s back at his desk after he was called in for a consult.

Babe you have no idea how much I cant waiiitt for this evening

It’s probably inappropriate and absurd and incredibly against employee code, but they do this from time to time. When they see so little of each other for so many days at a time, they have to continue their contact somehow. Zayn will send Liam a picture of office life, of his lunch or of his bad hair day or of his boss’ awful tie. Liam will update him on how many shifts he’s taken, and how many of them were, as Zayn loves to tease him to death about, cats stuck in trees. Most of the calls they get have nothing to do with fires, and in many cases are complete false alarms. It’s actually, strangely enough, how they met.

Zayn’s entire family was down from Bradford and crammed in his tiny studio apartment, so of course there was going to be trouble. He had just graduated university and been offered an internship at an extremely reputable sales company, and his extended family drove down to help him celebrate. His aunties had been cooking when the smoke detectors went off, which had shaken his only slightly coherent Abba from his fifth day nap, who immediately reached over to the landline and dialled 911 without hesitating. Zayn arrived from the grocery store to find his apartment crawling with (tall, built, rugged, and incredibly handsome) firemen, conversing with various members of his family. Nobody seemed to notice his arrival except Liam, who walked briskly over to him the second he walked through the door.

“I don’t want to alarm you, everything here is fine. It seems that your grandfather- erm, Abba, I mean- mistakenly thought there was a fire, after the smoke detectors had gone off from the cooking.” Zayn was sort of just standing there, completely in shock of the entire situation. “Are you okay?” the man asked, glancing between Zayn’s eyes with concern. “It’s Zayn, right? You’re the property owner?”

“Um.” He looked over at Doniya, standing up against the wall with a very tall firefighter who looked extremely confused as she batted her eyelashes up at him. “I am so sorry. For all this. This is extremely embarrassing,” Zayn shook his head and looked up at the firemen to only become even more embarrassed, because he was talking to the single most attractive person he’d ever seen. In his apartment. Which was allegedly on fire. With his entire extended family around him. 

“No, sir, don’t worry about this at all. Half of the calls we get are false alarms.” Liam smiled at him good naturedly, and stuck out his hand. “I’m Liam, by the way. Liam Payne.” 

Liam offered to run a full inspection of his smoke and gas detectors, and even went into his bedroom to reassure his Abba that everything was fine, who only stammered about if anyone was going to be there to take care of the fire. Liam just smiled and reassured him everything was going to be okay, which he repeated again to Zayn after the operation was all over and the rest of the firemen left for the truck. Liam turned shy, suddenly, which was a very odd expression to see on a six foot tall man in uniform, and handed Zayn his personal department card. He rushed an explanation that Zayn could call their department and reach him through the extension if he ever needed anything, to which Liam blushed even more and hurried off. Which Zayn did a week later, but for an entirely different reason. 

Zayn beams to himself at the memory. He unlocks his phone and rereads the text Liam sent him. They did this when they’d both been too tired to do anything other than kiss and fall in bed together when Liam came home, or when they exchanged sleepy handjobs but nothing more. And this time was one of the worst. They haven’t so much as seen each other naked in a little over two weeks. 

Yeah? You want me to suck you off like I promised? I’d let you keep your tank top and service belt on, and pin your hips against the wall. And then I’d let you fuck me into the mattress, make me come again and again.

He doesn’t get a response right away but the message saves in his phone as read, and Zayn pictures Liam, lying on one of the couches in the lounge, or maybe in one of the upstairs beds, surrounded by his firemen colleagues and trying hard to suppress both his boner and his blush. Zayn’s dick jerks abruptly just thinking about it.

He gets the text almost immediately.

been hard all day, see u tonite

Tonight, he thinks. Tonight is going to be amazing. 

\--

Liam is on him the minute he walks in the door. He’s already stripped down to his boxers, and Zayn can feel how hard he is even through his slacks. He’s panting, and Zayn immediately thinks back to what Liam texted him earlier. 

“Were you just jerking off, babe?” He asks, and Liam grabs him by the back of his thighs and picks him up. They fit so well this way, and the first time he did it Zayn freaked out at the fact that Liam could hold him up like that, just like that, but calmed down when he felt how much closer they were. How Liam could easily back him against the wall and fuck him right there, holding Zayn in his arms the entire time. 

Zayn can feel Liam’s blush, pink on his skin and snaking all the way down to his bare toes. “Maybe,” he mumbles, careful to stay close to Zayn so he doesn’t see. “Come ‘ere.” Zayn lets Liam pull him down onto the bed and it squeaks under their weight. It’s the first time Zayn actually sees Liam, who immediately tries to pull him in again, but Zayn uses his weight and position to push Liam’s shoulders down. He was right, Liam is absolutely scarlet, and his dick curves obscenely in his boxers. His pupils are dilated more than Zayn can ever remember seeing them and he’s breathing, hard, looking up at Zayn like he’s everything. He looks so young and anxious, like this is his first time all over again, and he’s just about to give everything over to Zayn. 

“God. I’m the luckiest fucking guy on the planet.” Zayn says without even thinking about it, but loves the way Liam’s skin burns even deeper and he squirms under the attention. 

“Stop it, fuck.” He brings his palms up to his eyes and digs the heels of his hands in and Zayn’s throat closes up. 

“It’s so, so true, babe. I wish you could see it, y’know, the way I see it. “ He trails his fingers down Liam’s chest and stomach and gently pushes the hem of his boxers down. Liam sits up on his elbows and helps him take them off, squirming up the bed and biting his lip in the process. He laughs at Zayn and brushes his hands behind Zayn’s ear, gently tickling his scalp. 

“You’re such a fucking sleaze, babe, you’re just saying this shit cause you want to put your dick in me.” But Zayn knows he doesn’t believe it, can see it in the way the blush is still there and his eyes are glistening.

“Oh, so we’re going to do it like that? Here I was thinking you were going to fuck, God, fuck me-” Zayn teases, but is cut off when Liam arches off the bed and grinds into him, effectively shutting him up.

Liam kisses him, one small closed mouth peck, and flops back down on the mattress below them. Zayn is swallowed by the moment, he forgets everything except the way Liam smiles coyly up at him with his back pressed to the sheets, just the way he had eight years before when he was trusting someone like this for the first time in his life.

Liam had waited until nearly four months into their relationship to admit that he’d never dated a guy before, and that very night they’d gone home and stripped off their clothes. Liam had gone to grab the lube out of Zayn’s dresser but just set it down on the bed, eyes cast down and lip pulled between his teeth. They’d never had actual intercourse and Zayn kissed him, reassured him that they could wait until Liam was ready to fuck him. He remembers the way Liam shook his head and still kept his eyes down, but pushed the lube over to Zayn and kissed him again. He’d been shocked by it, shocked by the way Liam worked himself back into his fingers and then his dick, had completely come apart under him but looked like he’d finally found something he’d been missing for all his life. Zayn had been worried about the way he’d pulled back from kissing Liam with wet cheeks, but Liam only wrapped his legs around Zayn and urged him on. It hollowed Zayn out, to see Liam so vulnerable to him when the only thing he’d ever been was strong and big and sturdy, the way he played the hero every day at work, the way people constantly relied on him to be the rock, the person who always knew what to do. It made him feel so honored, so taken aback and so, so proud to be the person who could see Liam like this, see the way he called Zayn’s name when he came between them. 

“What are you thinking?” Liam’s voice pulls him back into the moment. He can’t say anything, his throat closed off and burning, suddenly, from the memory and from the way Liam is gently making sure Zayn is fine. The way he trusts him, the way they trust each other with everything. How he’s never once reconsidered any of the time they spent around each other. How he even loves their fights, the way Liam’s brow pulls together when he was angry. The way they’ve both seen the worst in each other and stuck around. The way Liam puts up with him. 

“I love you. ‘S all.” Zayn makes out and Liam looks concerned at his voice, at the tears in his eyes. He doesn’t say anything, just winds his arms around Zayn’s neck and gentles him to put his full weight on Liam, the way he’s done so many times before. Liam's endlessly taking the weight off other people's shoulders, giving himself up for other people. Liam kisses the side of his head as Zayn huffs out a breath. 

“Now you’re making me emotional,” and Zayn can hear it in the thinness of his voice. Liam laughs and Zayn does, too, because that’s how emotions have always worked with them. They’re the worst sympathetic criers in the world.  
“You gonna fuck me, or what?” Liam gentles, and they laugh again. Zayn sits up and alleviates Liam of his weight again, resting over him on his elbows. Liam reaches up and wipes his thumbs under Zayn’s eyes and lets Zayn laugh at himself again. “Who would’ve thought, Zayn Malik is a softie.” His smile is so pretty, his teeth glinting white in the low light, making his lips look sugary pink and raw. Fuck. “Best kept secret in the world, I reckon.”

“For you, though. That’s it.” Zayn says, easing between the space Liam made for him between his knees. He gets up to get the supplies, but Liam pulls him back down. “Kind of got them out already, babe,” he says, slipping two foil packets in Zayn’s hand.

Zayn chooses not to tease him for it and rips the foils open, setting the condom down and slicking his fingers with lube. He presses his fingers in one by one, relishing in the way Liam pants and winds under the small touches. 

“Zayn, stop, you’re- fuck- still wearing all your clothes, babe,” and he didn’t even realize it, but Liam’s right. He’s still wearing a button up and slacks, and his dick is painfully pressing against the fly. In this moment, with three fingers in Liam as the sun setting beautifully into the sky, he can’t bring himself to care. 

“Don’t care,” he says into Liam’s mouth as he presses into his prostate and Liam nearly screams.

“You gonna fuck me like this, then?” Liam asks, bringing his hand over to undo Zayn’s fly. He pulls his pants and boxers down in one go, just so they’re down enough for his dick and balls to be free of the fabric. 

“I think you’re ready, and I’m not gonna fucking wait any more than we already have to feel you,” Zayn grits through his teeth, and Liam nods so fast that his neck could snap. They rush getting the condom on and Zayn aligns himself and pushes in, wasting no time in picking up his pace. He’s learned that Liam doesn’t mind when he doesn’t ask, which was close to terrifying the first couple times, but he knows now that Liam’s more than okay with him taking control. He feels unbelievable on top of him, sharing the space and the moment and the heat with the person he loves the most in the world. He realizes, looking down at Liam with his eyes screwed shut, that what he said earlier just becomes more and more true. He’s the luckiest man alive. 

\--

“I want kids.” Zayn says, lacing up Liam’s thick black boots. He winces at the timing and the way it just sort of splattered all over the walls, but the sentiment has been itching at the edge of his tongue for far too long ever since that night. It was always sitting somewhere in the back of Zayn’s mind, but he only realized its truth when Liam was panting into his mouth. It seemed stupid, like something he could pass off to the intensity of the way Liam felt around him, the way he could stretch him open and unwind him in a heartbeat. But it stuck with him, long after both of them came and showered and climbed into bed, exchanging kisses the entire time. Liam coughs up the water he’d just swallowed and doubles over a bit.

“Zayn!” Liam says, eyes as wide as saucers. “You’re bringing this up now?” He had every right to be a bit upset, because Liam was going off on another forty eight hour shift, and then Zayn would be leaving on a business trip the very morning Liam was scheduled to arrive back. “I’m not going to see you for eight days.” 

“It’s as good a time as any, really.” Even as the words leave his mouth Zayn knows it’s not true. “It’ll give you time to think about it.” He zips the jumpsuit over Liam’s black tanktop and avoids his searing gaze. Liam’s chest heaves under a deep sigh and brushes up against Zayn’s knuckles. He grasps Zayn’s hand in his own at the contact and forces him to look up. 

“I know how much you want this, but we’ve got to think about our jobs, babe. And I’m not even thirty yet, so I feel like there’s no rush on this.” That was a low blow, even for Liam.

“I can’t believe you just flaunted your age to me, I’m never fucking you again-” 

“Lies,” Liam laughs, tugging Zayn’s chin to give him a kiss. “We have plenty of time, babe. You don’t have to think about this now.” And Zayn knows that he’s only being rational, that it doesn’t make sense for them to do this so young. He doesn’t know how to explain what he’s feeling to his boyfriend. But every time Liam steps back through that green oak door, a part of Zayn goes with him. The apartment feels vacant and callous and strange. Every sound and every murmur of the neighbor’s TV highlight just how alone Zayn is in those hours. The solitude didn’t bother him at all in the beginning, because Zayn had felt relief at gaining back the alone time that his previous relationships didn’t have room for, but eight years is a long time to be alone. 

(More selfishly, he wants a piece of Liam that he can keep with him when Liam has to go save lives. He wants a constant reminder of what they share, he wants to bind them together in the only way they aren't already. He wants everything, really.)

“We’ll talk about this when you get back, okay?” Liam smiles sweetly and tilts Zayn’s chin up for another kiss. “I love you. Please don’t let yourself mope around here this time. Drink with Niall, or text Harry, or call your sisters, who by the way have been bothering me about another visit for months.”

“Okay.” Zayn pouts. When Liam turns around to leave he smacks his ass, hard. “No go be my hero. Save some old ladies’ cats.” Liam grins at him, and when he makes it all the way down to the sidewalk, blows Zayn a kiss before he leaves.

Liam loves his job. Zayn loves him. 

Loves him to death.

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on tumblr @ ziamstateofmind
> 
> Feedback would be fantastic. Thanks for reading, you are all fantastic :)


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